POPtalk

We were invited by Probationer Teacher Scotland, (part of GTC Scotland), a national support service provided to newly qualified Scottish teachers, to feature in their very popular “BlogSpot” section. This is a space where teachers in their probation year are asked to review products they love to use in class.

We turned to Jenny Harvey (@relativism), a class teacher from Kirkcaldy, Fife who presented  a fantastic overview of BrainPOP. You can read the whole review below. Many, many thanks to Jenny for taking the time to provide this article. We hope you all enjoy it

BrainPOP UK – What is it?

BrainPOP UK (http://www.brainpop.co.uk/) is a library of animated movies featuring the characters of Tim and Moby who explain a range of different topics in a clear and accessible way.

Movies are available across all curricular areas and the content is added to and updated all the time.

BrainPOP is something I discovered during my training and I have been using it for three years with a range of stages across the primary school.  The children respond well to the characters and are always very impressed to hear that I have met Moby in real life.

Although it is a subscription resource, there are featured movies and free content available to everyone plus there is a mobile app which has a free featured movie every day.  It is also possible to sign up for a free trial, which is how I first used the site.

Why do I use it?

In a nutshell: it is easy to access and use, the information is presented clearly and it is linked to Curriculum for Excellence.

The format of the BrainPOP UK site is extremely easy to navigate and clearly set out in curricular areas.  The home page is bright and visual rather than having screeds of text and the search function does exactly what it should.

Curricular mapping tools, which are linked to Curriculum for Excellence, make planning an easier task and the interactive multiple choice quiz feature can be a useful formative assessment tool.

How do I use it in class?

I have used BrainPOP UK during teaching time, as an activity for a group and also as a research tool for directed research tasks.  When used during teaching time I vary the order of the movie and quiz; sometimes I use both but at other times I use one or the other.

As I mentioned, the curricular mapping tool, which is called Deep Beep, makes planning easier as you choose the subject area and the Curriculum for Excellence level to match to your Experiences and Outcomes and then the topic of the movie based on the matching results.   Movies can be paused, rewound or fast forwarded as required.  This allows time for questions, reflections and checking understanding at any stage of the movie.  I like to keep a notebook book file open to record any notes or observations during the movie.

The quiz can be very useful at the beginning of a topic and at the end to assess knowledge gaps and progress and inform future planning.  I have also used the quizzes as an example for question creation lessons during which groups of pupils create their own quiz on a particular topic and these are then peer assessed.  The quizzes can also be used with response units if you have these in school.

Quizzes and movies are not the only resources available on BrainPOP UK. There are associated activities, related topics and an FYI section providing additional stories and facts related to the chosen movie topic.  The FYI sections are a particular favourite of mine as they often help to answer further questions and can help to generate other questions for investigation by pupils.

And there’s more…

Free CPD! BrainPOP UK provide free webinars which you can access online and from the comfort of your own home.  If you need evidence of these CPD sessions they can also provide certificates of completion.

The BrainPOP UK staff, or BrainPOPpers, have always been outstanding in terms of customer service.  They answer any questions promptly and they have even created a movie for me in the past.

I hope that this brief introduction has helped give you an overview of how BrainPOP UK can be used in your classroom.  Remember it is free to try, the only software needed is a browser with Flash Player and if you need any support the BrainPOP UK team are just an email away.

Related Posts:

• “Why I think BrainPOP is great for learning”
• EXPLORE A TOPIC: The History of the UK
• Things are looking up Down Under
• Highlights from the Scottish Learning Festival
• What’s in store at SLF 2011?

10 year old Grace is a Digital Leader at St John the Baptist Primary. Leader by name, leader by nature, Grace took it upon herself to review BrainPOP UK, which we’re very proud (with her permission) to reproduce in full here.

Hello. My name is Grace and this is why I think BrainPOP is great for learning.

Firstly, BrainPOP helps anyone learn anything even if they learn in a different way to other people. I, for example, learn by seeing things in front of me but my friend learns by hearing things.

Does that mean we can’t learn together? No – we have BrainPOP!

In the BrainPOP videos the characters Tim and Moby don’t only show you how to do whatever you are learning about- they tell you as well, that means me and my friend can learn together!

As well as this the videos are funny, colourful and informative, this makes learning fun and more like watching a cartoon – basically tricking children into learning (sneaky teachers)!

I noticed that when we use BrainPOP in class even the children who don’t enjoy learning become excited.

I even use BrainPOP at home.

For example; I enjoy knowing things ahead of others so when I heard about binary numbers I got excited, firstly I asked my parents to explain these strange binary numbers, although they are extremely intelligent when my parents explained I still found binary numbers confusing.

Then I went on BrainPOP!

Using humor as well as information Tim and Moby told me all about binary numbers and now I know more about them than one of the most clever people in my school!

This is why I think BrainPOP is an amazing tool for learning!

All we can say is, thank you Grace, we salute you.

Related Posts:

• Digital Leaders
• Moby Digital Leader badges
• WEBINAR: Is your school thinking about Google Apps?
• Things are looking up Down Under
• Quick! I’ve only got 10 mins

Clare Rafferty, a Geography & Commerce teacher and E Learning Leader at an Eastern suburbs government secondary college in Australia, and a BrainPOP UK subscriber, recently posted her insights into BrainPOP.

BrainPOP UK resources and approach shares much with Australian education and we’ve really started to take off in Oz, purely through word of mouth.

So with her kind permission we have posted her article in full below.

“Now in our second year of our BrainPOP UK subscription. This is an awesome comprehensive website which is constantly being added to. Currently we have school access from 8:00 am to 4.00pm enabling all 1500 students and teachers to access this engaging and informative website.

The range of content, subjects covered combined with quiz material cover most concepts, subjects taught including being able to access all the content in French which is great for our French classes. Every day there is a new ‘featured’ free movie which makes BrainPOP UK a constantly growing resource for your staff and students to explore.

The website is easy to use, students at all year levels can navigate the site easily. You set up the user name and password for the school so you can make it as complex or easy as your students and staff need. The movies/animations are great as introductions or revision material for students as they encourage curiosity.

BrainPOP UK uses short unique movies/animations to explain complex and challenging concepts to students in an interesting engaging format. They use basic language so all students can understand the concept and then move on to test and apply their knowledge.

Why BrainPOP UK? Language similar, measurements and history, our systems of government and law all are similar and this is why it was essential for us to have a subscription to UK BrainPOP rather than BrainPOP USA.

As of next year with all content available on their free app we will move to a 24/7 subscription where all content will be available to our staff and students anywhere, anytime.

Given it’s range of content and annual subscription cost it is true value for money – ‘cheap as chips’, used by a huge range of subjects and pitched at the level students need and want. Sign up for a free trial at http://www.brainpop.co.uk you won’t be disappointed.”

Clare Raffetry, http://raffsrant.global2.vic.edu.au/ and at http://twitter.com/#!/craff2008 .

Related Posts:

• “Why I think BrainPOP is great for learning”
• Kids take action to reduce paper use
• BrainPOP UK – A parent’s perspective
• Where did I leave that order form? – Dawn Hallybone reviews BrainPOP UK

We don’t say enough how much parents like BrainPOP UK, to use out of school as a safe, interesting and engaging resource.

So we asked one of our parent subscribers to tell us why they use BrainPOP UK. Here’s her review.

“My 10 year old daughter loves BrainPOP UK.

Here’s why:

• It’s great for people who think in pictures. It suits visual learning styles and it’s perfect for children with a short attention span or for busy people who don’t have time to watch long programmes.
• The range and choice of subjects is fascinating, informative and seems to be well-researched.
• The illustrations are great.
• The tone seems just right, even in subjects that could be controversial or difficult to explain to children.
• Clips can be watched at a time that is convenient for the user, any time of day or night.
• Very educational, but the children are having so much fun, they don’t notice how much they are learning about the world until they impress their parents with something that even they don’t know. And then, when you ask them how they know, they’ll probably say they heard it on BrainPOP.
• School is so long nowadays and sitting at a desk all day can be very tedious for a child.  BrainPOP is so much fun and so different from being talked at by a teacher, that my daughter begs to watch a few more clips even when we’re short of time.
• I have recommended BrainPOP to friends and they seem very impressed and pleased that such resources exist.
• Clips can be watched many times, either because of the humour or to consolidate learning.
• The content offers something for a huge range of ages – I would say from 7 to a 100+

My ideas for BrainPOP UK:

• Personally, I would have liked more voices behind the clips.
• Maybe some children and women could also read some of the material.
• We’re always hoping that you will add more new clips!
• We feel that some of the movies are a bit too short – could perhaps be 4-5 minutes, but then the beauty of BrainPOP UK is that it explains and illustrates everything so clearly and concisely.

We don’t use other resources, apart from BrainPOP UK. Our daughter spends all day at school and it’s important that she has time to play and relax when at home. She used Mathletics and Spellodrome for a little while. They are excellent (award-winning in fact), but it’s difficult to find time for them or any other useful resources.

I enjoy watching the clips with my daughter and learn from them myself, but I know that I don’t need to check the content before I allow access to it. So if I don’t have time to watch them, I know that whatever she is listening to within BrainPOP UK is entirely appropriate.

I consider that her time on BrainPOP UK is time well spent, as she is being exposed to important matters that the school might not cover. This will surely broaden her horizon and help her to become a well-rounded and caring citizen.”

And we’ll save the last word for the daughter in question, Donny, the lucky recipient of some Moby badges:

“Thank you so much for the badges you sent me. I love them! I also love BrainPOP.”

Best wishes, Donny”

by Merita Lumley, from Buckinghamshire.

Related Posts:

• BrainPOP on Probationer Teacher Scotland
• BrainPOP’s here all summer
• “Why I think BrainPOP is great for learning”
• Moby and the Cybermummies
• Like mother like daughter like BrainPOP UK

We’re excited to welcome Dawn Hallybone as an official BrainPOPper today.

Dawn, a Senior Year 6 teacher and ICT Co-ordinator at Oakdale Junior School, has very kindly offered to give us her take on using BrainPOP UK.

Dawn is perhaps best known for her ground breaking work with game based learning in the classroom  – see her presentation here using Nintendo DS in the classroom. She is also deservedly a finalist for the Hand Held Learning 2009 Special Achievement Awards winner of the Hand Held Learning 2009 Special Achievement Awards!! (Well done, Dawn!)

If you’ve been fortunate enough to hear her speak you’ll know what an inspirational teacher she is, and how passionate she is about integrating exciting and engaging ICT into the realities of classroom life.

“I am not sure when or where I first heard of this product but have a feeling it may have been at BETT.

I remember being drawn by the bright colours and the characters of Tim and Moby. This is true as well of the students themselves when they first use it; however there is a lot more to this package than colours and characters.

BrainPOP UK is an online environment, where as a teacher and as a pupil you can watch short (5 minute) videos explaining a range of subjects across the National Curriculum.

The videos are well presented and convey the information in both a child-friendly and factual way as well as injecting humour – a must I feel with some topics! After each video there is a short activity and a quiz, although you do not need to complete this if you chose not to.

I used BrainPOP UK a lot during the Summer Term with my year 6 class, and found their videos covering puberty and PHSE invaluable as they dealt with these topics sensitively, but with a sprinkling of humour!

When I asked the class which part of the topic they had enjoyed – they all agreed watching Tim and Moby as it:

• ‘…made it clear’
• ‘…did not talk down to us’
• ‘…I felt they understood us’
• ‘…I liked the fact that the letters are written by real children’ (a fact that I nor they knew until we asked via Twitter – another recommendation by one of the class when I admitted that I did not know).

Once we had used it for this topic – the class were eager to explore other areas – they wanted to know what else Tim and Moby talked about!!! We then discovered some great resources for Literacy and Maths which we watched before we sat the SATS.

Again this idea came from the children not me and proved a hit as one they were all watching, learning and relaxing before their tests. There are numerous ways of using the resource. I tend to use it to introduce the topic, and use the quiz at the end as I find that this equips the children with a good degree of knowledge before we start any topic.

BrainPOP UK is a subscription service, but the range of subjects that they cover is vast and they are constantly looking at ways of improving and are great at listening and responding to suggestions from both pupils and teachers.

They also offer free videos each month – a great idea particularly when the Swine flu hit schools and children were worried. We embedded this onto our school blog and children were able to share this with their parents at home.

It can also be watched on a trial basis, which as a teacher I feel invaluable when trialling out resources with my children. It can look really good and sound really good in a sound bite or blurb on company website but it is when it is used in a real context that, for me, is the real test!

I and the class thoroughly enjoyed trying out BrainPOP UK during the Summer term – now the only question is – where did I leave that order form?”

Related Posts:

• BrainPOP at BETT 2013
• BrainPOP on Probationer Teacher Scotland
• “Why I think BrainPOP is great for learning”
• Moby makes me feel happy – inspiring a reluctant writer
• Sharing the TeachMeet Takeovers from BETT 2012